Does fate start where free will ends?
At the National Screenwriters' Conference last month, I had a micro-mentorship with one of Australia's top TV drama writers.
The Australian Film Commission backed her first spec script, encouraged her, supported her and her project was made.
She sat in the edit suite, she visited the set, she took an interest in the production process - she didn't interfere she listened and they let her.
If you dig usually you find that these "overnight" success stories have been years in the making.
She said everything she'd done in her life to that point had converged to make her career as a TV writer.
It's a similar story for Shaun Tan's Oscar winning short film which came out of an award-winning picture book The Lost Thing.
They work in trust.
Trust the universe but not enough to stop peddling the canoe - even if it feels like the universe is conspiring to tip your canoe over.
I trust the universe because I have seen goodwill.
I trust the universe because my dog puts her head on my shoulder when I'm on the phone.
But what about words?
Why must it be paddle and not ever paddel or peddle?
You lock words up to keep them in place - but still they do move.
What is the fate that words create?